Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew pens 'rock-fable' play 'A&R Angels'

Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew is frustrated with the failed promises of the digital era.

He’s wasted nights skimming through the abyss of Netflix only to conclude there’s nothing to watch. Wandering the aisles of a bygone video store seems more enticing.

The pleasure of listening to his favourite albums is hindered by Bluetooth speakers that don’t sync, while his streaming service passwords are long forgotten. He’d rather just throw on a vinyl copy of the Cure’s “Disintegration” and escape into the music.

The frustrations of modern life and feelings of isolation are among the factors that drove him to write his debut play “A&R Angels,” opening Nov. 20 in Toronto, which he created amid feelings of dismay.

“We live in a very anxious time,” says the 41-year-old musician. “For those who know the days before, it’s hard to adjust to what you’re told is now the norm.”

Drew is troubled by social media’s endless noise and the pressures to constantly feed the Twitterverse with every little detail. He believes oversharing has detracted from building friendships and bonding over thoughts and feelings.

In the “rock-fable” “A&R Angels,” Drew shares the stage with Billy Talent frontman Ben Kowalewicz, both of them portraying angels who’ve spent years rescuing others from the brink of death with their music. As their success rate falls, their superiors push for a new song they can quantify as a hit.

The parallels to the music industry are hardly ambiguous.

Record labels have always chased the next smash single, but the digital era amplified those expectations with higher demands for “content” amid diminishing financial returns. It’s not hard to see why Drew, who values delicate projects like Gord Downie’s final two albums, might feel overwhelmed.

“How do you fit your analog heart into the digital world?” he asks.

Drew is coming to the end of a difficult year. He recently watched Downie, a close friend, succumb to an incurable form of brain cancer at 53. They collaborated on Downie’s solo album “Introduce Yerself,” a farewell record of sorts dedicated to the Tragically Hip singer’s friends and family.

In July, Drew’s band Broken Social Scene made the difficult decision to step onto a Manchester stage the day after a suicide bombing left 22 people dead at a nearby venue. It created a moment of healing that was shared around the world on social media.

“The work, the records, the play, it’s all about just making people not feel alone,” Drew says.

“We’re in the memory making business.”

Drew draws on a piece of advice Downie, who he affectionately calls “The Man,” once shared with him.

“Gord had a very beautiful saying that I live by, which is, ’Put that in your back pocket and keep it there,”’ he says.

“That was how he would explain when you had a beautiful moment or made something that you loved so much. When it’s in your back pocket it’s yours. You hold onto that for those days that become extremely hard.”

Drew began writing “A&R Angels” a few years ago, when the members of Broken Social Scene put the collective on hiatus after losing career momentum. Questions about life’s purpose crept into the musician’s thoughts, and as he started to collaborate with other artists he found the struggle for meaning was shared by many.

“There was this real connection between everyone just trying to figure out if they mattered,” he says. “If what they were doing mattered anymore.”

Drew originally planned to dedicate his energy to making a film, but when plans didn’t take shape he turned to the theatre.

At first he thought that meant directing “A&R Angels,” but the reins were eventually handed over to Chris Abraham, the artistic director at Crow’s Theatre in Toronto. Drew agreed to take a starring role instead.

Kowalewicz says he was attracted to the idea of performing outside of a concert setting. Theatre audiences have different expectations and actors can’t bury their fumbles in the sonic forces of their bandmates, he adds.

“I believe that everything you do there’s always something you learn from it,” Kowalewicz says during a break in rehearsals.

“I don’t know how I’m going to be coming out the other side of this, but I know I’m enjoying the process.”

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